


Living Afar

by ANarrativeCloud



Category: Astro Boy (2009)
Genre: Basically Toby is Alive, But he doesn't want anyone to know, Gen, German surface for some reason, Smart!Toby, Theo-is-Toby
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-17
Updated: 2015-12-17
Packaged: 2018-05-07 04:53:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,530
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5444006
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ANarrativeCloud/pseuds/ANarrativeCloud
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A take on Toby's side of the story if he was transported to another place instead of dying.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Living Afar

 

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

The peacekeeper was approaching and Stone was just _standing there_ like an _idiot_. Tenma would have greatly liked for him to shut up; his mindless babble was _irritating_ to the ears. To top it all off, his logic is— _was and always will be_ —utterly flawed, corrupted by power and topped with sheer idiocy. Absolute power corrupts absolutely after all. He couldn’t say anything in turn, however, since he was the only person in the entire Metro City able to supply him the materials and having an influential politician against you is bad for his work—and in general.

Tenma slammed his palm on the emergency glass door, and the robot impacted on it, the upper ends of the glass shorting its circuit. The robot may be—

“Dad! Daaad!” A voice—his son’s!—was calling from the other side!

“Toby!” Tenma fisted his hands and slammed it down on the red switch which brightly shone—in bright red: ERROR. “I can’t open it! I can’t open it!”

The robot was approaching and Tenma couldn’t do anything but panic.

“Help me, Dad! Help me!”

_Bam. Bam._

“You’re going to be okay, Toby! I’m going to get you out of there!”

_Bam. Bam._

“Everything’s going to be fine! I promise!”

 _Bam. Pause._ The robot slammed its fists onto the glass wall and banged at it, finding that its actions were futile, it resorted to destruction.

{BARRIER ANALYSIS} [SHIELD IN PLACE] … [DESTROY SHIELD]

His son’s eyes were so scared, he had to do _something!_ He _had_ to! He’d already lost _her_ and he wasn’t going to lose the only family he had left!

The peacekeeper used energy from the red core and a small energy sphere formed in between the robot’s hands. Then there was a bright light that engulfed his sight, he blocked it with his arm and when he opened it… Toby was gone.

The robot was disabled and he didn’t remember how. The glass opened. And the only thing that was left of his son… was his hat.

 

[PRIMARY] … [SYSTEM OVERCLOCK] … [EMERGENCY BAILOUT] ... [MOLECULAR ANALYSIS] … [SYSTEMATIC RESTRUCTURE]

 

“ _Ist er wach?”_ (Is he awake?) Someone was talking and the voices were unfamiliar, everything was foggy and he couldn’t remember most of anything yet. The air smelled strongly of oil and the familiar smell of steel, rotten cheese and damp cloths…

“ _Was ist mit ihm passiert? Es sieht nicht so aus wie er verletzt.”_ (What happened to him? It doesn’t look like he’s injured.) Now that he thought about it, that wasn’t… English.  How did he understand—wait—he learned it… somewhere…  Now what was— _schoolorrinministryofscienceredcorebluecorepeacekeeperglasswallbrightwhitelight—_

“DAD!” He gasped out as he tried to sit up, regretting it as he was hit with a strong wave of nausea. His head hurt and he couldn’t think straight.

He felt the people around his bed— _was_ it a bed? It was hard, unlike what he was used to—shuffle away in surprise.

“Owowowow… Really regretting this.” He muttered as he eyed the people around him, the place was a dump and there was a lot of trash scattered everywhere. The room was small, but big enough for ten people to fit in without any problems. A kind lady—she had platinum blonde hair that was kept in a high ponytail and was wearing a dirty white shirt and brown cargo pants—had passed him a glass of water which he thankfully received and downed in one shot.

“Ist das Englisch?”

“Ja.” Toby replies, his head still a bit hurt but at least he could think, how did he speak German again?

“You’ve been asleep for three days, boy.” _Three days? Wha, what happened to Dad and the others?_ “We thought you were dead. Luckily Leonia had thought it was a good time to go stargazing. What’s yer name?” The man, a tall one, brown hair, with particularly German features had asked kindly—in German. He probably needed to speak their language. He’d learned it a while ago and he probably wasn’t all that rusty.

“Toby.” He answers steadily. “Who are you and where am I?” He asks, not without suspicion. He _was_ the son of one of the more influential people and it was highly unlikely that he wasn’t going to be targeted for hostage.

“I’m Leonia and he’s Wilhelm.” She points her thumb to herself and the man respectively. “You’re on the surface.” The lady— _Leonia_ —says though not unkindly.  “Judging from how you’re dressed, you’re probably from U-Bahn-Stadt.” (1)

“The surface?” Toby asks in slight surprise, he half expected that answer, but hearing it was still a bit surprising. And wait— _U-Bhan-Stadt?_ “Where on the surface?”

“Uhm, prolly somewhere in Ger—Germany?” He sounded unsure. Uneducated? Probably. He probably hadn’t even received a fraction of the education that Toby himself had received—coupled with the impressive capacity his brain had, he was smarter than people more than twice his age. He remembered his teachers speaking about other floating cities around the whole world, none as successful as Metro City and U-Bahn-Stadt was one of the lesser improved cities. It was a little behind in technology and Toby could remember a few times that his father had gone abroad to contribute to other country's technology.

“Is there any way for me to contact someone in Metro City?”

“Metro City, lad? In the what was the US of A?” The man’s tone was incredulous, but Toby had to rethink his first impression of the man. He seemed smart enough. “How’d you get here?”

“I’m not sure myself.” He smiled sheepishly. Then he thought, he really didn't know. The last thing remembered was a bright light.

“I know someone who can take you to U-Bhan-Stadt, but not the US of A.”

“Please tell me!” Toby’s eyes lit up. From a Floating City, it was probable that he could get home! There were traveling planes to and fro the Floating Cities, for tourists and similar things after all. There was an open window by the bed— _crate and blanket?_ —and he could see the Floating City, U-Bhan-Stadt. Had Metro City looked like that from afar? He’d never gone outside the city perimeter before. He wondered of everything really looked that small...

“Naw naw. It’s nothing.” Leonia hit his head with a wooden hammer, looming over the taller man with no effort. _Scary woman._

“There you go again with your empty promises.” She sighed annoyedly. “Don’t believe this idiot, Toby. He’s all bark and no bite. If you live here, you’d know that there’s no way to get _up there_.”

“What? No way to—that’s not—” He stuttered out in disbelief then glared at the man. What was his problem? “Isn’t there any way?” He continued and his tone was a bit more desperate.

“Don’t you think people down here would _stay_ if they could just go up there?” She asked, her voice was laced with bitterness. Why, he wondered.

“Can’t you—”

“I don’t know anyone and neither does he.” She repeated. “But I do know that those hover things exist. Those things that let you fly or something. You might be able to—”

Toby couldn’t help a smile. HoverTech™ had been made to fit cars and others by his father when he was two. The HoverTech™ had been firstly used to lift up Metro City to the skies. That had been its debut. No one had managed to shrink the amount of processes needed until his father had done so. If he remembered correctly…

“Do you know anyone here who might have equipment to—uhm—build robots?” Toby asked hopefully. If he had enough tools at his disposal… He might!

Leonia looked baffled at his determination. He’d do everything to get home. Had they dealt with the robot and remained safe? His father would be so worried—hell, _he_ was worried and he wasn’t the type to worry—and the situation he had disappeared from hadn’t really helped since—that probably insinuated he had died. He shuddered. _Died._ That was a depressing thought. His father—what could his father be thinking now? His mother _was gone_ and Toby remembered with almost startling clarity how self destructive his father had been. _How did he remember that?_ With no way of contacting them, how was he going to tell him that he _wasn’t_ dead?

“Robots?” She hummed thoughtfully. “There _is_ one person. Deep in the city. He hates people who are unknowing of the ‘intricacies’ of robots and those who view robots as merely things.” Leonia shrugged. “I really don’t know why he wants us to treat them as intelligent beings though. Robots are just assistants, right?”

Toby felt slightly affronted. He’d never treated robots as nothing more than objects of necessity. He never understood why others didn’t understand why robots were _given intelligence_ if people didn’t treat them as if they _had_ intelligence. He’d always felt that way, but people who had radical views had prevented him from doing so, after all, he was still young and most people thought that age had a matter in sensibility and logicality.

Leonia seemed to see his thoughts when she smiled.

“I’ll tell you where to find him.”

Toby had never heard something equally daunting.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

He hadn’t left till the next morning. Leonia had mothered over him and he couldn’t help but comply. Her aura was so _warm._ He hadn’t remembered what it felt like to be smothered with care. Maybe this was like it?

It wasn’t that hard to get to the place itself—it was just a few minutes’ walk from Leonia's but the door was scary enough. The doorway was completely automated and he had knocked on it experimentally—it was made of solid steel—and he doubted that he’d be able to open it without any permission from the people inside. The door was simple enough. The door itself was made of a special type of fiberglass—a thick and highly durable one if the sound it made was any indication—better than the glass ones. He rang the doorbell, a rather big red button that blinks.

A large holographic screen opened and a face—is that a tiki mask?—appeared.

 _{Go away.}_ was written in front of the face in big letters.

“I won’t leave.” Toby replied resolutely. “I have to get home and you’re the only one who can help.”

 _{Home?}_ The wording was bitter. _{Are you saying you live somewhere up there?}_

“Yes.” He replied. “Leo—um—someone told me that you have material and equipment to create robots. May—may I… I want to—um… ”

 _{You want to use my lab.}_ Toby could just see his narrowed eyes.

“Yeah!” He affirmed. “So, could I?”

_{No.}_

Then the monitor shimmered away.

“…huh?”

Toby blinked.

 “Well _that_ went well.” How could he make Hover Machines without—he paused—his eyes caught the heaps of broken robots by the edge of the what was once a city. Maybe… he’d be able to create them from the things thrown away from the nearby Floating City! It took him a good amount of time before he reached the heap and he started digging parts out. There were a lot of things here and he doubted that he would run out of materials. There were a lot of things he hadn’t seen before! Old phones—did they really make these? Whoa. The phone had an extending antenna too! Circular oven toasters. Talking blenders… Fat TVs, Old cars. There also were still some working robots in the heap, he smiled and sent them an _“I’m sorry, I’d really help if I could.”_ and he _would_ have, but he didn’t have any portable electricity or batteries with him, so fixing them would be bit of a hassle if they wouldn’t work anyway. Maybe he should make some solar panels? Maybe he would and bring a portable outlet with him. Those were one of the first machines he’d ever made, so he would probably be able to make them no problem.

Something shiny caught the corner of his eye and he scuttled closer to see it. What… _whoa._ Why throw _this_ away?

A Toroidal Hydro-Springload Column or THSC for short. It was a little roughed up, but nothing a little tinkering wouldn’t fix. There was a material in it that was highly superior to any other storage device and able to process more than five thousand terabytes in the small device. It looked like a miniature old styled car thermostat but it _wasn’t._ It was just what he needed! Now he just needed a Polar Middle Accelerator, a Rotational Angular Gearbox and an Enhanced Half-Systematic Frame, some small and large circuit boards, and if there was some missile shell, it would be better. The Multi-Circular Shaft and Tri-Vault Stanchion were already obsolete since the THSC had already covered its functions and surpassed even both of those together—he’d been looking for those. He’d only need wrenches and a welding machine for this to work. Did anyone around here have any large electronic telescopes?

And he continued his search until the sun had set. The things he needed were heavy but he had luckily found a small wheelbarrow that he could probably use to haul it to where Leonia was staying. She was probably worried, even though they’d only met that day. It took him a good hour—an exhausting one—to push everything back to where he was going to stay for the night, he didn’t know where he got the stamina, but he didn’t really dwell on it much. Toby didn’t want to leave everything outside—he wasn’t naïve enough to think that no one was going to steal anything even if most of the people on the surface were illiterate. When he reached the abandoned building, he knocked.

“Who at this hour—” Toby heard Wilhelm complain. “Ah, Toby, my boy! Come in! Leonia’s been waiting for you!”

Toby smiled and his smiled turned a bit sheepish as he pointed to the wheelbarrow. “Um, can you help a bit?”

Wilhelm laughed. “You sure you can build something with those pieces of trash?” 

Toby’s smile widened. “Something like that.”

Toby’s days had consisted of going to the house of the person with a lab and the equipment he needed (Toby had called him Tiki-man in his head because he didn’t know what to call him; even Leonia didn’t know the person’s name and just referred to Tiki-man with pronouns) and going to Leonia’s house to build what he could. He managed to build four solar generators in a day— _and_ whoa _isn’t that impressive?_ —and tried it out by trying to make the appliances in the house work. The place had been lacking in energy for a while and he was lucky that he spent most of the dark hours asleep.  He wouldn’t be able to make the HoverTech until Tiki-man would allow him to use his equipment, so he put it upon himself to slowly create each equipment he needed. He was a little bit out of practice since he’d never really created a machine he’d never seen the blueprint of before—meaning that he was just recreating, retuning, aligning and adjusting things and not really inventing machines. It was a sore spot for him, he sucked at inventing and he had the ideas, just not the ability. Yet.

Days slowly trickled by with him building two solar generators a day and successfully providing power to the small town—he hadn’t known that it was being given out though. Wilhelm had just told him that he should make more generators and when he had puzzlingly asked why, since the house had more than enough generators, Wilhelm had explained that people on the surface were trying very hard to live without any electricity and said type of energy was sacred. Enlightened with the surface’s situation, Toby became indignant with how poorly the people were being treated. The whole time he was going to stay here, he would do _everything_ he could to help them—and considering how his brain worked, that was _a lot_ , and he was just being honest. He—completely motivated—also successfully created a machine that would be able to convert spoiled and rotten food to fertilizer (a recreated one again) the first prototypes had exploded in his face, but that was fine. It wasn’t unusual for there to be kinks before they were tested. The people had—given initiative—began starting to clear fields free from the heaps of garbage. Wilhelm had been charismatic— _surprise, surprise_ — and the strict supervision that Leonia had provided were the main agents of their... prosperity.  Toby was surprised to see how a little insight— _educated_ insight—could go so far. He’d only suggested that they clear fields and they should create agricultural lands for them to make their own food or, "How about you make a farm?" Verbatim. That was the only thing he said along with all the suggestions and things they could do to further the plan. Wilhelm had taken it a step further.

They had taken it to heart. And oh. Apparently, Wilhelm and Leonia were married in all but paper although they didn't want to have a child until they would be able to give their child a proper upbringing— _so_ that _was why Leonia was bitter_. The both of them wanted to do something for so long already and all the attempts they had, had failed. Utterly, in Wil’s words. When Toby had asked them what they did. He understood why it had failed. He really did. I mean, sending _everyone_ to the Floating Cities? Create their _own_ floating city? And they had run out of ideas quickly.

It had just been a month— _a month!_ —away from home and he was feeling like he’d found his home. He wanted to go back to Metro City, sure, but he also wanted to help the surface. He wanted to go back still and he was still persevering in creating the Hover Machine he needed, but compared to all the other inventions he had in mind, it was placed in the depths of the backburner.

It took a good part of hard work and hundreds and hundreds of dedicated people—where they came from, Toby didn’t know, but they all needed food—to start the project. The excessive manpower was a huge plus and seeing as none of them had any proper jobs, work and restoration was all they did. There were some abandoned supermarkets that no one had touched—discovered by one of the particularly mischievous little kids—why? Well, they didn’t know they were still there, according to one of the people. The food had all been ransacked, but all of the seeds, the fertilizer, and all of the non-edible goods were still intact, but the food wasn’t there anymore. The past people had probably just focused on immediate consumption than long term anti-starvation measures.

The Re-Prosperity Project was headed by Wilhelm—they called it RPP for short—but the foundational ideas had stemmed from one ten-year old kid. Wil never told anyone, but somehow, they just knew. How did Toby know what was happening when he was pretty much shut in with all the assembling and programming he did? A kid his age, Gustaf, had been haunting his window and was talkative. Very talkative. He could fill an empty room with chatter with little to no effort and his personality was boisterous and most of all, he had no shame. Toby had a hard time _not_ liking him. He was a certified gossip—better than any woman—and he knew how to separate the truth from the false ones, or at least he said so. Toby was no judge of what was true, Leonia vouched for him, so he decided to trust the chatterbox.

“You know, Toby? The people here pronounce your name weird. You’re English, right?” Gustaf had just suddenly asked out of the blue one day.

Toby affirmed his statement, not seeing the need to correct him.

“Why don’t you change it to something with more oomph to it?”

Toby was unpleasantly reminded of the news he had heard from a rewired television—he knew that a lot of people wanted to hear of the news from up top and he had picked out a television and an old satellite dish. The first piece of news they heard was about how ‘Astro’ had defeated a monster that had terrorized Metro City. It was big news since Metro City had fallen to the ground, quite safely, too, due to ‘Astro’s’ interference. ‘Astro’ had looked too much like him for it to be a coincidence. He didn’t blame his father, but he wanted to reach out to them and tell them, that he was _still alive_. There was a little pang in his heart when he had watched an interview of ‘Astro’. He was… _him_. Just like that, he wasn’t _Toby_ anymore, at least in the eyes of Metro City. And his father. He knew that his robotic counterpart had memories, how else would he have answered the basic introductory interview about himself? A metaphorical cold stone had made itself present in the bottom of his stomach, but he'd have to live with it. _'They think you died.'_ He told himself. They wouldn’t have done that otherwise. He let out a slow exhale, refocusing his mind on the conversation.

“Change?” Toby thought for a bit. Maybe… if Astro was both Astro _and_ Toby (how did that even work), then who was he? “Should I?”

Gustaf smiled. “Gustaf isn’t the name my parents gave me.” He stated cordially. He changed his name? Why didn’t that surprise him?

It made him depressed, but he had hundreds of people to help and he wasn’t just going to leave them while he wallowed in his and his family’s problems. He had taken it hard. He had to know his father’s perspective, though. For all his father knew he was _deaddeadead_.

"Hans?" He suggested.

Gustaf scoffed. "Lame."

"Lloyd?"

"I said _oomph._ "

"Drey?"

"That's... No. it doesn't fit you."

“How about ‘Theo’?” Toby asked after a moment of thought, it might have been a little conceited to take a name with a meaning that grand… but Gustaf _did_ say oomph.

“As in Theo, _godhood_? _Bam_ , that’s got _oomph_ to it.” Gustaf was from U-Bhan-Stadt, and an orphan of a hover car they went dangerously tittering over the edge. He’d survived the crash, but his parents were less than fortunate. It didn’t look like it bothered him, but Toby— _Theo. That’s your name now. Remember that._ —knew from his own experience that even if it didn’t seem like it, someone could be suffering.

"So, _Theo_ ,” Theo rolled his eyes at the emphasis. “, you gonna tell Wilhelm and Leonia?" It was odd, being called something that he only recently claimed as his name.

"Probably. Can you tell them and everyone for me?"

"No problem. You have things to do right?" Gustaf said with a grin.

"Yep." He replied absently.

Gustaf let out a short laugh. “You know, you’re too kind.”

Theo didn’t agree with him.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

It took another month before Tiki-man had actually opened his door to To— _Theo._

“You’re actually letting me in?” Theo asked excitedly. He had been busy, with all the helpful machines he was making, but he had taught a lot of people how to make them so after that, all he had to do was teach. It was an odd notion. He’d never taught anyone in his life.

“Yes.” The stout man was wearing a lab coat. “You did something that I could never have done.”

“All I did was give a suggestion.” Theo replied with a satisfied smile. Even if he did give a suggestion, it was still acted upon. That was what was important.

It was a big accomplishment four one so young. After all, fourteen year olds were supposed to still be at school and complain about homework.

"So what do you need?" Tiki-man started.

“I’m going to need—”

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

It had been five months since Theo had arrived on German surface and he hadn’t left yet. The hoverboard—he decided that a hoverboard would be best to transport him to U-Bhan-Stadt (it was so cool, he was still fourteen after all)—was already built and it was just waiting to be used. Theo hadn’t. Not yet. There was _so much_ to do! There was still the problem of the ridiculous amounts of trashed robots that it wasn't funny anymore. The trash heap had been efficiently reused, but there were still thousands of robot parts there! Maybe he would build a metal melter or something...? Will and Leonia were busy with all the leading they do, and they went home exhausted. Exhausted, but happy.

"I know you want to help and all," Gustaf started. "But aren't you neglecting yourself?"

"Huh?" Theo said unintelligibly, pausing from his tinkering of a very large machine—Metal Deliquescer, he decided to name it. It was pretty self explanatory, a machine that melted metal. "Neglecting? I'm _pretty_ sure I've been eating healthy and sleeping enough." He said in slight surprise. "I also have enough healthy social interaction with everyone. I don't see what the problem is."

"Astro." Gustaf said simply. Theo's grip tightened on his wrench.

"What about Astro?" His emotional walls visibly slammed up and hours eyes became guarded, it didn’t go past the social butterfly who dealt with socially retarded human beings on a daily basis.

Gustaf sighed. "Once you're done with the farming robots, that thing and the mass production manual, _leave._ "

"But!" He started to protest. "I don't even _have_ enough money!"

"For the transportation to Metro City?" The gossip laughed a bit. "I do remember that you had a stash of money from all the scavenging you did. I'm not sure how much one flight costs, but I'm pretty sure five thousand euro would be enough."

Theo flinched. "That's none of your business." Five thousand was a hefty sum, and most of those were just picked up by the clearers—the ones who threw the biodegradable garbage into the sandy pits and those who gathered the reusable metal pieces—who were instructed to pick up anything that looked like it had monetary value. (Theo had built a metal detector and a small magnet for them to be able to identify the ones that could be recycled.)

"It isn't." He agreed. "But... If my parents were still around... I'd want to talk to them. Even if they didn't know I was— _is_ and _still am_ —their son."

Theo looked like he was going to cry, the back of his eyes were burning. “That’s… going to be very difficult.”

“What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, right?”

“Or it cripples you.”

“Aw, dude, stop being a pessimist. It’s ruining the speech I prepared with _all_ my love!” The chatterbox pouted childishly.

Theo breathed out a laugh. Trust Gustaf to make things look easier than it actually is.

“I’ll… try.” The gossip grinned at this. “But don’t expect too much.”

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

It had been another week until Theo had finished what he presently needed to finish—and then some. But as soon as it was done, a party was hosted for his leaving. A farewell party. The party was a blast, although they had no other food besides vegetables—potatoes, carrots, cabbage, corn—everyone was satisfied with their food. They worked hard for it after all.

"You don't have to cry. I am going to come back, after all." Theo said with a laugh. "It won’t be forever."

Leonia sniffed. "Were not going to forget you, Theo."

"Too much drama, Leonia." He huffed. Leonia hugged him.

"Take care, okay?"

Theo smiled.

"Now, you noisy lot. Theo leaving doesn't mean you can slack off." Wilhelm started loudly, catching everyone's attention. "It means we have to double our efforts so that he'd be able to be proud of us and return to us with a smile on his face!"

Yells of agreements could be heard. Theo could feel hot tears falling down his cheeks, had he really become this much of a crybaby?

Leonia noticed, but didn't comment. Instead she smiled at him.

"Yo, Theo." Gustaf greeted amiably, his eyes averted from Theo's visage, obviously showing respect for a man's pride. "Can that Hoverboard of yours carry two?"

Theo hurriedly wiped away his tears and grinned. "Can you speak English?"

"Haha, of course I do. Brave man." Gustaf commended, for being frank probably. " _Buuut_ , I think you'd be better off going on your own, less expenses that way, and I know how much you would love to learn more and explore. I was just kidding about that, no way am I going back up to those snobs and meet other foreign snobs."

“Write to me?”

“Sure, why not. With those fancy gizmos of yours, that’s going to be very easy.”

“Check it every now and then. I’ll send souvenirs.”

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

The moment he had landed on the Floating City, Theo put down an 11-inch radius circular platform on the edge of the city and locked it there. He was wearing something he hadn't worn in six months, clean and pressed. The pants were a little short, but his shoes were redesigned so that it would fit the hoverboard.  He pushed several buttons and it disappeared via camouflage. It was a newly developed teleporter, built from the concept of Instant Molecule Rearrangement and Exact Matter Displacement. Another one was in his bedroom and the only people who knew of its existence was Gustaf and Tiki-man (he never did tell Theo his real name). Though he had specifically told them that they were not to use it if they didn't have hover devices with them, or they'd suffer death by impact with the ground. After doing all the precautionary errands, he hopped onto his hoverboard and zoomed to the airport and arrived there in several minutes. After he arrived, he went up the counter with no hesitance, using the hoverboard as a foothold. The counter was taller than him and if not for the extra height the floating device had provided, his head wouldn't even be visible from the other side! He'd grown a bit in the past months—five inches to be exact—but he was still fourteen! He’d be _very_ tall when he grew up. Or at least he hoped so.

He put the money required on the counter, but was interrupted by the cashier lady.

“I’m sorry, but paper money can’t be used in transactions anymore.” Her tone was diplomatic and rehearsed, Theo noted.

"What do you mean?" Theo said in askance.

"I'm sorry sir, but even if you had paper money, it doesn't have any value until you have deposited it into an account and had your identity verified." The cashier had replied with as soft tone.

"Where can I do that?" He asked curiously.

"Department of Registry." She replied with a smile. "Just enter the front door and a robot would assist you."

Theo nodded and continued in. a polite tone, "Thank you miss."

He left the airport and hailed a cab, which was fortunately run by a robot.

"Department of Registry please." Theo requested with a smile. He knew he had no actual money, so the moment the robot had turned around, he opened the circuit system and rewired the robot to skip the payment part—he'd done this dozens of times to Orrin before. He didn't worry about missed steps, he'd had enough practice with harder things. He'd rewire it again after he'd reached his destination. A robot run city was really vulnerable to people who could just rewire everything in their path. Lucky for them, only a few people could do that. This one was a lesser robot that didn’t have AI, so it was pretty easy.

He wondered what he would do when he meet with any of them... Would he pretend that he didn't remember them? Would he claim that he was who he was, but what about Astro? He couldn’t just waltz back into their lives as if he never left. He also had his responsibilities with Leonia and the others. What to do? He needed to make a choice. The surface needed help, badly, that was for certain. A small part of his mind whispered to him: _The surface doesn’t only exist in Germany._ And yes, he knew that. He knew that with an almost painful clarity. His responsibilities didn’t only lay on German Surface. It extended to the whole world. While he knew that the Earth had a surface area 510 million square kilometers, he didn’t fully comprehend just how large it is. Intellectually, he knew, but the vastness couldn’t be understood unless one could see it for oneself. Stories of the clear blue oceans and seas had fascinated him. The largest bodies of water that Theo had ever seen was just a pool, but that was before he had visited a body of water with the other clearers and found it completely dirty and completely contaminated. He had devised a robot that could filter it, but nothing beyond that yet. He needed to isolate the water from all the others and keep it _somewhere_... A plan slowly took form in his mind and he couldn't stop the itch to create to stop! He'd do something about it, definitely. Tiki-man knew how to read blueprints and he was capable enough to spot flaws in his plans and correct it, so that was no problem. The prototype would probably need fixing as well. He _really_ preferred tinkering with the machine itself, but alas, it was not meant to be. The blueprint just needed to be written down, it was already—

“Department of Registry, Department of Registry.”The robot’s announcement of their arrival had startled him out of his thoughts and scrambled to get out of the cab, nearly forgetting to rewire the robot. He didn’t though. He entered the Registry as if he belonged there and walked around waiting for a guide.

"May I help you?" A slightly robotic voice asked from his right, there it was.

"Ah. Yes." Theo hummed. "Can you help me register a new citizen?"

"New Citizen.” The assistive robot confirmed, then asked: “Cause?"

"Corrupted Documents." It was a lie, but no one would believe that he was Toby Tenma anymore. He was Theo Grandlhert—they most likely required a last name and that was the first thing that came to mind. It was quite odd that the people didn’t question why a minor was registering for his own citizenship, but he doubted they would stop the things they were doing and ask him that. It was one of the major flaws of a fast-paced society. People just lacked care and concern for other’s wellbeing since they were more often than not engrossed in their own lives. He couldn’t blame them. It was a lifestyle that he himself hadn’t realized until one of the people from down under had told him so.

"Follow me." The process was boring, but necessary and all the instructions that the robot had given were clear enough as well as easy to understand. It wasn't even a day before he had citizenship in U-Bhan-Stadt, they badly lacked security measures. He had deposited his money in a bank somewhere—AiniosBank—with the aid of the robots, and his credits were finally free to use. It also seemed that U-Bhan-Stadt hadn't yet heard about all the improvements happening on the surface—he had overheard some important looking people talking about how trashy the surface was—and he preferred that it _stayed_ that way. He'd heard enough of rotten politicians to know that innovation in any place other than the Floating Cities was frowned upon or taken s hostile. Although it would be a problem when they started to expand their agricultural lands since the amount of land needed for food would be large and a sudden patch green land in the previous wasteland was bound to get attention—especially with the constant updates of the satellite images; the best case scenario was that the present president would support the Re-Prosperity Project—with all the funding, and men at his beck and call the surface might as well be clean again—worst case was that they'd declare war. For what reason, Theo didn’t really understand.

He boarded his hoverboard to get back to the airport. The only reason he had taken a cab was because he hadn't known where it was and he really didn't want to dent his account yet.

"A ticket to Metro City please." He handed his payment, a sum of 500 euros, together with his newly acquired ID Pad. There didn't seem to be any fuss anymore. He'd leave in three days, all the other flights were fully booked already.

"Astro?" Theo heard a voice from behind him from the door. His head shifted to regard the speaker.

 _Professor Elefun?_ He thought in surprise. What was he doing here?

"How'd you follow me?" Elefun asked in a worried whisper. _Follow?_

"Follow you?" Theo asked, knowing that his cover would be blown if he talked even just one step out of line. He forced out a chuckle.

"Sorry sir, I think you have the wrong person. Theo Grandlhert. Nice to meet you." He replied cordially, taking a leaf out of Gustaf's personality. That guy was smoother than anyone he'd ever met, and he would probably be hard pressed to keep this charade up for long though. A lot of little kids emulated him and his habits—much to the said role model’s amusement—since he was _cool_. Pretty lame reasoning, but they were kids and kids had bad judgment.

"O-oh." He seemed to catch himself in his embarrassment. "I'm sorry, Elefun, a researcher. N-nice to meet you." He was suspicious—of _course_ he was—he and Astro were _identical_ , seeing as the robot was fashioned to replace him. How would you react to a lookalike of a humanoid robot who was modeled after him?

"Well then, I really need to find a place to stray for a while." He replied with a grin. "Nice to meet you again."

Elefun looked a little baffled by what happened and Theo wondered if he could actually pull it off, talking with them without their discovery that he _had been_ Toby, he meant. He forcefully pushed the thought away, he knew he was running away, but he was going to cross that bridge when he got to it. Needlessly worrying about everything would just make him feel more anxious. Gustaf was—is—a good social coach, he learned a lot of things from that annoying guy. If it came to it, he'd just wing it.

He checked in at the front desk, earning a confused look from the receptionist, but he merely smiled at her and continued to pay for everything. Once he had himself a room, he proceeded to vacate a space and started drawing blueprints in the computer terminal provided. It was a lot easier than doing the blueprints by hand—he had already used this when he was younger and all the machines he created had increased his experience. The holographic screen read your mind through the nerve endings of your fingers, decoding the electric signals—Theo hadn’t studied neuroscience yet, so he could only make guesses on how it worked. His father had once told him to just place his palms on the screen, close his eyes and visualize the programming in a coherent and chronological manner. What he thought had appeared on the screen with small gaps here and there that a little reading couldn’t fix. It had amazed him back then and it amazed him even more now—the reason was because he still hadn’t understood how it worked before. He usually avoided using that method though, since he upgraded and improved the machine while he created the blueprint for it and he couldn’t focus that easily yet.

He turned on the Television for background sounds—he’d gotten used to someone constantly talking to him, whether it be Wilhelm, Tiki-man or Gustaf— and was quite surprised at the first channel that was opened.

The show was a statistical report on foreign activity. The amount of alien renegades on earth had increased exponentially in the past months, it said. Alien existences had already been proved a few years back—if Theo remembered correctly—but none of those had ever landed on earth. Roughly five months ago, had been the start of the invasion attempts, Theo could only guess that the reason was because of the energies of the red and blue cores had exploded and served as a beacon for power hungry aliens (if they were anything like humans). Maybe. When the blueprint was done he had it printed. That one would probably be able to remove the impurities found in water, the calibration and tuning were all up to Tiki-man since he was better in chemistry than Theo ever was—he had more experience on the field and he had a lot of time to research and study about all of those compounds and formulas. Now that he thought about it, how old was Tiki-man? Forty? Younger? It was hard to guess.

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Three days passed too fast. He wrote up blueprints of new ideas and sent them to the teleporter himself after he finished—he had another teleporter, but smaller this time, 4-inch radius. When he wasn't doing anything, he was exploring the hotel (he had paid for it and he wouldn't let the money go to waste) he'd found a large pool, a sauna, a spa, a jacuzzi, an arcade (it was less impressive than what he had expected), a digital library, and nothing else, oddly.

The flight back home had passed as nothing but a blur of consciousness and unconsciousness for Theo, being woken up once by the stewardess for food or drinks. The next one was a warning for landing. He had never expected speaking in his mother tongue to be this refreshing. It had been _so long._

So what was he going to do now? The moment he stepped off the airport, he felt a sense of unfamiliarity, new buildings that replaced the ones that had been destroyed due to the frequent alien attacks, people were strolling around, cars were zooming through the Levi-roads. Metro City had been re-elevated up a thousand feet in the air and this time, his father had devised a semi-elastic countermeasure for Metro City, so that may it fall again, they didn't need to rely on Astro for it, bless that kid. The advertisement for reassurance was meant to quell public outrage and was shown to be completely transparent. The newly elected President Logan seemed peaceful enough to Theo. It said that the bottom part of Metro City was going to consist of elastic material that would be able to absorb the impact if ever the city would fall.

There were some buildings however that were still familiar. His own home— _house. It would be a house until the present inhabitants convince him otherwise_ —for example. It was still standing where he remembered it to be. Theo wondered what the view up there would be. He set himself on the board and rode with the winds.

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The days hadn’t been too friendly to Astro. His identity was in question everyday and he still hadn’t found peace even if he repeatedly said so. His father had refused to let him go back to school—there was an empty feeling whenever he tried to feel interested in any sort of learning. There _wasn’t_ any _interest._ Astro found it odd. He remembered himself being so thirsty to know everything and anything that concerned robots—maybe it was because he _was_ a robot. There was also the matter of self-preservation. He wasn’t afraid for his own life _at all_. People were usually afraid of their own lives and avoided things that could harm them, but he had no such notions. What mattered to him was that everyone else was safe. Was it because he was a robot that had been programmed to be similar someone who existed… and his body and mental processes wouldn’t be able to replicate the instinct borne of living things? The blue core had done a great job of emulating emotions and he still didn’t know how that worked.

Astro threw himself on the bed, his mind running in circles. He had always been thinking of how much things he had and didn’t have and kept comparing himself to the ‘Toby’ in his memories. He knew that technically he was _also_ Toby, but he felt that if he used that name, he’d be betraying what he had decided to be. He wasn’t accepted as ‘Toby’, but was called ‘Astro’ by anyone who wasn’t his father— _father, creator, it didn’t matter. He was still his father_ —Metro City had been a target for aliens lately and at least he had a duty to attend to. He was the only robot powerful enough to be able to deal with those things—excluding large warships of course.

His thoughts were running around in circles and he just wanted to _stop thinking!_

A blur had passed through the window and he opened it by reflex. His vision had focused on the falling figure and he immediately set off to catch. The only thing in his mind was to save the falling person.

Catching the person by the arm, he sped into his room and put the person down. He got a good look at the person and was surprised to see… a face identical to his. Was this…

“Whoooaaa… I didn’t know falling from that height was so scary!” The person had commented thoughtlessly. “Uhm, thanks for saving me.” He grinned. “My name’s Theo.”

Astro blinked. _Theo?_ Wasn’t he… “A-astro.” He reluctantly introduced himself.

“Nice name. It sounds very space-y.” Theo smiled. Astro looked very uncertain. “So! Do you know where this place is?”

Theo looked around the room and was hit with a wave of nostalgia—he was careful for it not to show, though—the place hadn’t changed much. Only to be expected, since he hadn’t really been one for redecoration.

“You’re in my room.” Astro replied steadily, but there was a trace of uncertainty in his tone, he recognized his own voice patterns after all. It seemed like he hadn’t had much practice in dealing with emotions yet. Like Theo had been six months ago. He remembered Gustaf saying that the only way to be able to mature emotionally was to experience emotional hardships and experiences first-hand. Astro hadn’t had much emotional exposure to a lot of things, had he?

“Do… you have any food around here? I’ve been living on potatoes for the past week and I‘m _starving._ ” Theo complained. Living off of hotels were costly, just look at his potato diet!

Astro smiled, a familiar smile. It was a good thing that Theo was wearing Leonia’s knitted black bonnet or it’d be so _awkward_ to see them both with the same face and the same hairstyle—should he dye his hair or something? He didn’t want to do that though. Theo was a bit taller, he grew like a normal boy after all— _unlike Astro, you mean_? He inwardly punched himself, there was no need to _compete_ for superiority, and if turned out to be a fist fight, he was _pretty sure_ he’d lose. He had left another Platform in the hotel room he’d rented—he was just about running out of money, so he’d need to find a job soon—and he went and used his hoverboard to attach another at the top of the house he lived in for ten years—he made a lot of them. He really didn’t want anyone to know about it yet, since if it was discovered, well… He knew how people tried—and are still trying—to make teleportation work and here he was prancing around the globe with _The_ Teleporter. Yes. With capital letters. After he attached the Platform, he had lost his balance due to a small ‘quake’ from the construction of the semi-elastic countermeasure. He was just about to activate his hoverboard when something— _someone,_ he corrected himself _—_ had caught him. Imagine his surprise when that turned out to be his robotic counterpart.

Astro was quick to trust— _that_ had _to be corrected_ —and left the room with an “I’ll get you something from the kitchen, I’ll be right back.” Theo perched himself on the seat by the edge of the window and gazed at the city. He wondered what was happening on German Surface now—he could just teleport back there whenever he wanted to as long as he had a large enough Platform (the one at home had a twenty inch radius, to make the teleportation easier)—but the whole point of the travel was so that he could resolve his issues. There was also the problem of this area’s surface… He pulled out a Metal X-ray device that would let him see the built and structure of the machine without taking out the parts—Tiki-man was the one who made this one—he used it to look at the city and he was surprised with how much _energy_ they wasted. Could he create a machine that would turn heat back into tangible energy? Electricity perhaps? He would. He just needed to research about that. Badly. The excess CO 2 in the air was also worrying. Plants weren’t going to just spring up everywhere and take care of that part of the job for them. _Or maybe they could._

“Here it is!” Astro’s friendly voice has sifted through the air. He brought two bowls of cereal and a large gallon of milk on a tray. Theo cleared the table and Astro placed the food on the table.

“Cereal! And fruits! It’s been so long!” Theo said with a grin. “Let’s eat!”

“Let’s eat!” Astro mirrored.

They both had finished the bowl in seconds, they were grinning with scarily identical smiles.

“I’m going to visit again!”

After that, Theo had left leaving his email address on a piece of paper under the cereal bowl.

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May I remind you, it’s a one-shot. :) There’s probably going to be a sequel if I get the sequel to run. I’ve pretty much run out of juice for this particular fandom. 

 **(1)** U-Bhan-Stadt means Metro City in German. So uncreative, I know.

 **(2)** “In the what was the US of A” It’s intentional. It’s explained in the prologue of Astro Boy that the surface was completely filled with waste and garbage, upheld by Astro’s visit to the surface, so that means that the places in the surface might have lost their names in history.

 **(3)** There are a lot of fake machines in there and invented concepts since I’m being too lazy to search the correct terminology for all of them. Did they look convincing?


End file.
